PODS

1.PODS


Well here I go. I am going to write my family history. That’s cool too because I have all this old paper stuff to help me. My Nana died last week and I got all this paper. It’s real old, I have never written on it, heck it’s the first time I have even touched paper. I mean I write and talk on the computer all day, but paper is so rare. It feels soft. The book, as it’s called, is all hand written by all my dead relatives. It goes back to 1900. That over 300 years ago! I can’t believe it they put pictures in it and all kinds of loose paper stuff.
Maybe I should explain myself. Yeah that’s a good idea. So you see I live in a POD. Everyone does now and has for all my life. I was born in this tower of PODS, so were all my friends. My parents live 10 PODS east of mine, my family is close but everyone’s is. I have never walked outside. I have read about grass, sky and water. I can see outside but it’s dark all the time. We see stars; I wish I knew what they were called. Oh yeah my name is Leaf.
That sounds very dreary but it’s not. We have common area like the huge playground I really loved when I was a kid. I love going to all the big open spaces, the disco is cool we can dance and have fun. The conservatries are neat all the plants and flowers, it’s my Moms favorite place. The restaurant is where we eat most of our meals we can cook in our PODS but its more fun. We have a hospital but it’s not used much. We have no real sickness. Just babies born and if you get cut you see a medical. If you look at old pictures, it looks like a garden in the halls and open places. It’s not real, no rains or any weather. I have read about weather I wish I could experience it but it was so dangerous. I just don’t know how the human race survived.
I work on a power grid, we compile all the information on power usage for the PODS. It’s not boring either I do charts in colors. When I started it was slow going but now it’s a fast going job. We are using power more every day. Funny thing too I don’t remember using this much power when I started here. Well maybe I just don’t remember.

2. Family.
So about my family. I have a sister Rose, and Mom and Dad. My Mom grows all kinds of plants in the family POD. She can even grow salads! I know, can you believe it? Which is cool because I can’t grow a thing. My sister well she is a little kid still in school. Dad he works here in the power grid. It’s funny we both work here but never see each other in person.
I am working on this today because the grid is doing this scanning up thing. So I can work on my family story. So my parents have been married 21 years now. Hmm let me see they had me and my sister. That’s really boring; I don’t have any papers with births or deaths. Maybe I am going about this wrong.
What is this? The power grid is spiking up odd. That’s weird because it’s just a steady stream that goes up gradually. Now I have to sit until my supervisor comes to tell me what to do. It’s going up so fast then just dropping. I can see it on the screens. So now I am looking out the window and I can see another tower of PODS. Its lights are going off and on.

3. Quiet time
It’s gotten real quiet, no power now. It’s getting warm too. I can see out of the office POD window and its real dark. What happened to the stars? Well I am not just sitting here; I will go home to my own POD. How can I leave a message? My phone is off too. I can see why my relatives used paper.
As I am walking to my POD, I see I am alone. You usually see people but its quiet, nothing. I wonder if Hillary’s grandfather was right. OK I need to get it a grip, silly old man and his stories about PODS going dark and then…. Everyone is in their own PODS with their families. Yes that’s it they are waiting for the power to come back. Like when the power went out when I was a kid we all went to our POD and waited for it to come back on.
I walked to my families POD. I had to use the stairs which was cool. I hope no one is stuck in the elevators. I just do graphs so it’s a good thing I am going home. I would be in the way Dad can fix this kind of thing. I sure could use one of my Mom’s salads. That’s all I need a salad and my silly little sister’s jokes.
I saw no one on the way to the family POD. It was quiet too as I passed the doors of other PODS. I should have seen someone by now, not even in the common areas. It was too quiet, not even sounds of life. I got to my family’s POD. It was quiet when I walked in, it was empty. My mother and sister should have been there at the very least. That’s when I got scared.


4. Alone
I am alone here now. I can’t find anyone. It’s been 2 days now and still no power I have been back to work too but its dark and getting hotter in the office. I stay in my own POD it is my safe place. When I walked around I heard noises. I called out the first time but stopped mid yell the second time. It was an odd sound I don’t think I can explain it right, it was a scream of crackled sound.
I only went out to get food and now I have a week’s worth of food here I dragged a big refrigerator in here. I have some power, the backup power from 200 years ago and it works. I was surprised when it went on last night. I turned off the lights everywhere I could and anything needing power. I don’t know how long I will be in here alone.
Now its day 3 and I still hear noises sometimes. But I also hear something outside my door. I have now moved the huge dresser my Nana gave me in front of the door to my POD. I have never needed to lock myself in before; I don’t think I have ever locked a door. I know I have never seen a locked door or a lock of any kind on a door.
I am comfortable, have food and the temperature isn’t bad. I have had 20 hours now of quiet now. I think that noise is gone. I haven’t heard any people I even sent out messages on the computer to other PODS well every POD on earth. Maybe they think I am that noise tricking them. So I sent out another message only with video not just text. Why didn’t I think of that before? Maybe it’s being so alone.
I miss my family and friends so much. I went to my parents POD to get salad on the way I heard footsteps. Well I think there was a footstep it was a thudding sound on the floor. I ran into their POD as fast as I could, and slamming the door shut. Then I realized it had no lock and the huge dresser was in my POD. My heart was beating so hard and I heard the crackle scream again. I tried to calm down to think.
I heard the thump again just past my parents door. I jumped. It’s quiet here again. I got my salad and looked out the door. In the hall it was nothing but air and a dim emergency lights. I headed to my POD leaning up against the wall and walked so quietly. I just hurried on toward my POD. I don’t think I breathed until I got inside my POD and shut the door and slid the dresser up to it. I put my salad in the fridge; I could still feel my heart pounding so hard. I sat at my desk looking out the window, just calming down, breathe and relax. Ok I need to send out another message and I don’t want to look scared to bad. Wait maybe if they see how scared I am they will answer back. I turned on the camera and spoke. “Hi, it’s me Leaf, please answer me if you’re out there. I scared too and alone. I will keep this open so you can talk to me anytime. I am going to eat now but I can hear from the kitchen.”
I sat at my table and ate part of the salad. No one answered. I just lied down on the sofa. I hadn’t sleep well in a while.


5. Awake
I am awake now. I slept for 8 hours. I feel rested but starved. I went to the kitchen and ate a nice breakfast. Then I checked the computer screen, no one called no messages, just odd sounds again. I checked the computer, it had the noise for hours on it. No pictures of what was causing the noise. I put out another message and then it happened someone replied. ‘Hello, are you alone too?’ just a small voice.
‘Yes, I am here in the green POD where are you at?’ I asked.
But no answer it was just quiet again. Then I thought, OK they need me to talk to them. So what would I want to hear if it was me? Gee I feel real grown up saying that, maybe I am now.
‘Hi I am Leaf and I live in the green POD tower. And I am alone too. I work on the power grid; well I do the color graphs nothing too exciting. Let’s see oh yeah I am working on my family history. You see my Nana left me the family paper work, its real paper too! Paper is soft if you want to know. I love it, its so soft and it smells so nice. I know, who would have thought paper has a smell. Oh yeah the ink too, it’s a cool smell. I have paper here that’s real old and she gave me ink pens called Bic’s. You’ve got to see paper and the pictures too. Do you have any hobbies like growing plants or building stuff with used containers? I know my friend Hillary he makes jewelry his Grandpa taught him. My Nana taught me to write with ink and a quill pen like they did forever ago. We wrote on cloth because of no paper.’ OK let’s see if they answer that. I am a real blabber mouth here.
Quiet still I waited 2 minutes but I felt like someone was out there. Let’s see I told whoever about Nana’s paper and my family history project. I know maybe they are hungry.
‘So do you have enough food where you are? Are you comfortable? I am sure your scared too, gee I can hear noises. The noises are like a scream combination of squeaky sound. I just can’t explain it. Oh yeah and I hear a thud foot sound well it’s what I call it. Do you hear things like that too? Well if you’re hungry please come to my POD. I am in POD 10 on the 5th floor of the green POD. Yes I forgot I told you I was in the green POD.’ I sat still and just waited. No answer it’s been a whole 10 minutes too.
I got up and walked around my POD I need to keep moving. I took the exercise video and popped it in. Some exercise will be good warm me up. That’s when I heard it a pounding on my door. I ran to open the door….
I shoved the dresser to the side and opened the door slowly. I looked both ways nothing no one was there.
‘Hello, are you here? I can’t see you. Come on please answer me. I have salad and fruit snack things and good ice water.’ I was so sad. I know it was a pounding knock I heard it.
I am standing here until that person comes back here. I looked down the hall both ways then I walked down to the next door and looked in. Empty sadly. I went back to my POD door maybe whoever it was walked in my place. I closed the door and checked the POD nothing was missing and no one was in here. I sat down and just wanted to cry. I am sick of it alone and I miss my family so bad. I cried myself to sleep like a little kid.
When I woke it was dark, cooler and someone was looking at me. I could feel it.
‘Hi who are you?’ I asked, but nothing. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.
‘I see you so you might as well talk to me. You know I am not afraid of you.’ Alright two can do that.
I got up and ran to the bathroom as fast as I could. I washed my face so I didn’t look like a little kid who cries for his mommy.
Let me see I know I want lunch so I ran into the kitchen so fast that’s when I was tripped. I hit the floor and slid to my desk. I rolled over and saw a black shadow. It wasn’t a person it was what Hillary’s Grandpa said. It’s the shadows they lived outside the PODs they where the reason we were in here. Crap that old man was right.
Just once I was hoping he was telling us a wild tale like Nana said. I mean he isn’t as old as Nana was. Let me think, I need to remember what he said. So he said the shadows came here and killed the people. The ones that survived lived; I can’t remember what he said. Why am I sitting on the floor looking at a shadow trying to remember a story an old man told me as a kid?
“So you tripped me. I have been nice to you. I talked to you and your rude not even thanks for the invitation for food. Geesh what did I ever do to you? Nothing I have never even seen you before.” The shadow said nothing.
I noticed the power was even lower levels the lights were dimmer than ever. I then saw 2 more shadows. It was getting cold too and I am not used to the cold. It’s always 75 degrees in the PODs. It must be the emergency power going out now. I sat up to look around but something was blocking my view.
‘Why don’t you answer me are you afraid I am right? I don’t even know you where are you from? It’s wrong to ignore me I haven’t ignored you have I? I ask you stuff and even talked to you about my hobbies. I told you about paper too, I bet you have never seen paper either or a pen.’ I sat up straight I could feel the chair behind me. I pulled myself up into it.
Now I couldn’t see any better yet but my computer was in reach. I reached to and something hit my arm hard. I think it was the shadows. I pulled my chair closer to the computer too. I heard a low growl coming from across the room. So I reach to my computer again but this time I got the video on with sound. I hope someone else can hear this too. So I think me talking to them helps some.
‘So why did you hit me? I didn’t hit you. Heck I don’t even know you. So how come you’re mean? Fine don’t talk be that way that’s what Hillary’s Grandpa would say. I want my dinner so I am getting up to get it if you hit me I will hit back. Now you have been warned!’ I got up real slow as I did I was thrown across the room.
I hit the dresser I don’t know how anyone could throw me that far. I weigh a lot. OK I am chubby. I like food but to throw me so far…
I hurt all over and I feel something cold running down my back. I didn’t say a word I just laid still like I was dead. My breathing was shallow anyway. I just wanted to cry but I hurt so bad I don’t think I could of if I wanted to. It wasn’t cold now. I just sat up and then realized it’s not me sitting but what was left of me. I could see the shadows they were looking around my POD for what I couldn’t guess. I don’t hurt now.
I walked out my door and headed to my families POD I saw people everywhere.

The end.